PlayStation.Blog

I’ve made no secret of my love of last year’s Valkyria Chronicles, the beautiful PS3-exclusive strategy RPG. I know I’m not alone in that regard, based on the favorable reaction to last week’s announcement of Valkyria Chronicles 2, coming next summer to PSP.

We caught up with who answered some of your questions, confirmed online play modes, and indicated openness to create another Valkyria game for PS3.

What made you decide to develop the official sequel for Valkyria Chronicles on the PSP? (Submitted by user: Trollkotte)

For the original PS3 version of the game there were two key features: The Canvas graphics system and the BLiTZ combat system. So when we were discussing the sequel we obviously wanted to bring these two features over, but we wanted to upgrade it somehow. When we looked at the BLiTZ battle system specifically — especially in the Japanese market — co-op play and wireless play is becoming more and more popular and we felt that would expand the gameplay for the title in a great way. When we went further in that direction we discovered that the PSP is the perfect platform to take advantage of that.

Are you adding new unit classes, weapon types or vehicles? Will there be any returning characters from Valkyria Chronicles 1? (Submitted by user: BigBoss712)

Yes. In terms of new weapons and units, not only will there be more of each, but there will be expanded customisation options for both. We have Scouts and Stormtroopers, as we did in the first game, but Scouts may branch into Scouts who run faster or are more meant for battle. In that way, each of the units will branch into new units. In terms of weapons, in the first game a rifle might branch into three different rifles as you progress in the game. The amount of variation is even greater in the sequel. In terms of returning characters, you’ll definitely see Alicia and Welkin come back and you might see other members of Squad 7, too.

We can also customise tanks this time around. You can equip different weapons and change the colour, which will affect how the tank moves. There are many ways for you to customise your own troops, just based on all the different character, tank and weapon options.

With Valkyria Chronicles 2 going portable next year there have been rumours of its return to the PS3. Is that likely? (Submitted by user: G-Force08)

We’re still developing Valkyria Chronicles 2 so, to be honest, we’re not really thinking about Valkyria Chronicles 3, 4 or 5 at this point. Just in terms of how our team develops titles and our way of thinking when we choose the platform for each of our titles, it’s not necessarily “let’s make a PS3 game!”. It’s more a case of “what kind of game do we want to make?”. For example, the first Valkyria was on the PS3 because of all the features we wanted to incorporate into the game and we felt the PS3 was the most suitable platform, so that’s how we develop games in our team. So potentially Valkyria Chronicles 3, or another title that we work on next might be on the PS3, it might still be on the PSP, we don’t know at this point.

Because we’ve already got experience of working on the PS3 and now we’re developing another game on the PSP, that just adds to our level of experience and understanding of these platforms and will definitely help us in determining what is the best platform for the next game that we make.

The PSP is seeing a lot of success, particularly in Japan, with regards to its online and ad-hoc multiplayer. Will you be taking advantage of that in Valkyria Chronicles 2?

We are incorporating wireless ad-hoc play into the game, which will feature both co-op and versus modes. We can’t really talk too much about it in detail yet.

Are there any plans to add a versus mode to Valkyria Chronicles 1?

Valkyria Chronicles’ engine wasn’t made for this sort of gameplay, so we can’t just patch a versus mode into the first game. But if fans really want that, and the development team really feels that it would be a compelling addition to the Valkyria Chronicles franchise, then that might be when we create another Valkyria Chronicles game for the PS3.

How does the difficulty of Valkyria Chronicles 2 and the character progression system differ from the first game?

What has changed the most is the way the game flows. If you remember back to the first game, it’s like reading through a book, with a certain number of missions per chapter. So if you hit a particularly hard mission you have to use trial and error to get past it, or you’ll never progress. But Valkyria Chronicles 2 is mission based, so if you reach a mission you can’t clear, you have the option of trying other missions before returning to the more difficult one. By doing that you can level up your characters or you might meet someone who can help you clear this mission. It’s a different method of progressing through the game. Overall the game’s difficulty will be about the same as Valkyria Chronicles, but because the game flow is different you might find the game is easier or, depending on the player, more difficult.

After the interview, we went down to the show floor to go hands-on with the game for the first time. As a fan, I can safely say that Valkyria Chronicles brings everything that I loved about the original game to the PSP: It handles very similarly, looks great, and has the added benefit of portability.

SEGA also released a new batch of (Japanese) screens for VC2, you can find some of them here.

That said… (sigh)… I hate to go off-topic, but you’re going to see about a billion of these posts today anyway:

Why are you not letting us download previously-purchased UMD’s for play on the PSPgo? I can’t believe you would come to this decision. This is a slap in the face to all the fans that have kept the PSP platform alive over the years by continuing to purchase games and new hardware iterations. Now those of us who want to upgrade to the PSPgo are forced to either: (a) give up on the PSPgo; (b) throw away our game libraries; (c) carry *TWO* PSP’s around with us; (d) turn to unofficial firmware that will let us play ripped UMDs just so we can play our *legitimately purchased* games.

If physically *mailing* you my UMD’s in their original cases and with the original receipts is what it takes for you to let me download them via the PSN, then that’s what I’ll do. But please, PLEASE don’t tell me I’m just plain out of luck. That’s just unacceptable, guys, and it hurts to see you treat your loyal fans and (more importantly) *CONSUMERS* like this.

Again, my apologies for going off-topic, but we need a better solution because ”sorry” is not going to cut it.

I didn’t think they’d be putting in co-op and versus modes in VC2, gonna be interesting to see how it turns out.
I can see why they went with the PSP now though, since Ad-hoc play is very popular in japan.

Co-Op? I’m interested to see how this works out (not one for versus/competitive).

Seriously, the more I read about VC2, the longer the wait seems to be. Definitely one of my favorite new IPs this gen. Really looking forward to the franchise gracing the PS3 again. Who knows, maybe a PS3 and PSP title in tandem with some PS3-PSP Connectivity for unlockable characters, gear, missions?

I’ve always been a fan of Sega, and I simply loved Valkyria Chronicles. Regardless of what’s going on, Valkyria Chronicles will be going in my shopping basket, Day One. (Any chance of a Soundtrack being included? The music in the original struck me from the very beginning with how beautiful it was. By the way, also picked up Sega Superstars Tennis and Viking just recently. Go Sega! =D)

OMG I LOVE PLAYSTATION NETWORK SO MUCH…..I DOWNLOAD SO MANY GAMES…..LOL…..YAHHHHHHHHHH……..I WANT THEM TO MAKE MORE DEMOS THO CUZ I WANT SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT….BUT I STILL LOVE PLAYSTATION NETWORK….LOLZ…….HOLA

dudes chill they said at they tgs that you will be able to convrt every single umd game you own to pspg0 using your current media manager.. why dont yu go do some networking and read theses thing they say b4 you go holler all these bs complaints…. and why do evry one want the motion controller to have a joy STICK HAVE YOU FOOLS EVER THOUHT IT DONT NEED A JOY STICK TO MAKE MOVE MENTS???? SHESH

Co-op and versus mode? that sounds sweet, btw thanks for answering my questions, is great to know that there will be some returning characters from the first one. Looking forward to anything related to Valkyria. =)

Actually, since they plan on being ridiculous, they should have made this game for the PS One. Why? Because then they could still stick with their dumbed down graphics. The game could be downloaded and played on the psp which would appeal to the Japanese market. The game could be played on the ps3 as well which would appeal to the rest of the world.

I just picked up VC1 this week and love it. I’m sure I’ll also get VC2. However, putting this title on the psp for the online play is flat out stupid. The psp is by far the worst of any gaming system for playing online.